February 23, 2021 by Molly Patrick

When I was in college, my morning routine consisted of getting up 20 minutes before class, smoking a cigarette on my way to school, then stopping by the cafeteria before class to buy a big cup of coffee with cream and sugar, and either a huge lemon poppy seed muffin or an egg and cheese croissant sandwich.

During my first class, I would have to try SO hard to stay awake. I would literally hold my eyelids open so I wouldn’t fall asleep. Sometimes I did fall asleep. I was 20 years old, and I was exhausted most of the time.

I hadn’t thought about this for years, but the memory popped in my head earlier this week as I was making my breakfast (a big bowl of toasted buckwheat, steel-cut oats, millet, and black rice topped with papaya, banana, apple, toasted pecans, and soy milk).

I am exactly 20 years older than I was in college, and yet I feel younger and have more energy now than I did in all of my twenties. I’m not disappointed in my younger self, she did what she had to do. I am focused on my present, and my continued commitment to make choices based on how I want to feel right now, and if I’m lucky, in 20 years from now.

When I feel good, my actions move me closer to what I want in life. Simple as that.

Sure, drinking sweet coffee and eating a sugary muffin might taste good, but if I made that choice, I would be catering exclusively to my taste buds, not how I want to feel. At this point, coffee and a sugary muffin wouldn’t even taste good to me because my palate is so used to eating whole, unprocessed plant food.

And when you truly prefer to eat whole plant foods instead of the alternative, THAT is when this way of eating becomes effortless, enjoyable, and predictably consistent. That’s when excuses are no longer needed, you make time to cook, you show up for yourself, and you don’t let one single thing stand in the way of you and what you want.

Clean Food Dirty Girl exists to help you get there, and we created our new website in that spirit.

Give yourself 20 minutes on our new site to look around and find something that sparks your soul. This is all about how you want to feel because that will lead you directly to what you want most.

Meet me over here and say hello.

Molly